Taken

Chapter 3

Steve's POV:

"Come on guys," Steve said, sounding exasperated. "You can't seriously think this is because of Tony!"

"Unfortunately," a cruel voice said as the barred door swung open, "It is."

"What do you mean it's Tony's fault?" Steve demanded, "He's not even here!"

"Not yet." The voice chuckled evilly from the shadows. "But he will be."

"What are you talking about?" Natasha demanded. "Where the hell is Stark!"

"Probably on his way flying here." The mysterious voice stated. "Don't worry though. You sorry bastards will all be going home quite soon. You're simply leverage, it's Tony we want- couldn't care less about you." He gave a short, harsh laugh before allowing the heavy door to slam behind him.

"Leverage?! Why the hell are we leverage?!" Clint roared angrily.

"He wants Tony for something, probably personal revenge. They most likely took us first to psychologically torture Tony. Something along the lines of , 'Come here and turn yourself in or we kill all your friends.' And Tony took the bait. I mean- you heard the man, Tony's on his way here now. He's going to come and probably get himself killed to protect us." Bruce stated sadly, the exclaiming, "And I didn't see it, stupid!"

"It's not your fault." Natasha assured, trying to calm the scientist. "It is because of whoever is on the other side of that door. Not us, not Tony, just them. And maybe Hawkeye."

"Hey!" Hawkeye yelled, "What' do you mean it's my fault?"

"I'm kidding Clint." She said, suppressing her laughter, "I just wanted to lighten the mood."

"Hahaha, very funny." Clint grumbled, "Blame your partner for getting your other partner stuck in a death trap, while you're in a death trap."

Steve had had enough of the pointless bickering. "Alright!" he yelled, "everyone settle down. No one's dying- and that includes Tony." He added, pointedly looking at Hawkeye.

"And how do you suppose we go about this 'not dying'?" Clint shot back.

"Well for starters, we shut up. Then we get the hell out of here. Before Tony gets here." Cap said sharply.

They continued arguing inaudibly as Natasha turned to Bruce and said, "So much for not bickering."

Amused, Bruce looked back at her, "Yeah. They're worse then Tony."

"Well then," a voice spoke from the ceiling, "if my annoying charm isn't needed I guess I'll go home."

"Tony!" Steve gasped, his head shooting towards the ceiling to spot Tony as the others followed in suit. "Does anyone see him?"

Moments of silence followed Captain America's question as the four pairs of eyes searched through the darkness. The quiet was finally broken when Black Widow called out, "There!" Her hand rose to point towards a small flat circle embedded in the ceiling. A speaker.

Crackling to life, Tony's voice, again, came pouring out of it. "Did you guys miss me? I mean, it's only been, like, seven hours, but that's seven hours without your favorite genius, billionaire, playboy, philanthropist. So I can understand if you are."

Steve groaned. This was so not what he needed right now. Although, admittedly, the genius part might be useful right about now. "Tony what the hell's going on?" he yelled toward the speaker.

"I figured that was pretty obvious Capsicle!" Came Tony's snarky response. "We're trading places!"

"Why are you doing this Tony?" Bruce yelled, "Whoever this is is probably going to kill you."

"Or you!" Tony responded, clearly trying to hide the 'death for him' part of their conversation. "Give me a second, I'm going to come down, easier to talk that way." A minute or so later the door swung open and a slightly beaten Tony entered.

"Oh my God Tony!" Steve started, "What the hell happened to you?"

"I got here about an hour ago." Tony snapped impatiently, "Put two and two together."

Steve shook his head. "Why can't he ever actually be serious?" he wondered. The out loud said, "What are you doing here? We could've gotten out without your help."

"Yeah I see that." Tony started. "It's very obvious you could have gotten out of here because you're still in here."

Clint simply rolled his eyes. "Bickering like children. Steve and I weren't that bad." He thought before snapping back to the conversation.

"Why do you always have to talk like that?" Steve practically yelled.

"Because this is how I talk." Tony said lamely.

"Not your tone you idiot, you always guard your feelings, act like a stuck up rich boy who doesn't care." The Captain continued.

"Two problems with your logic there Cap." Tony started. "One; I'm not an idiot. I have four PhD's. Two, if I didn't care- why would I be here saving your asses? Ask yourself that."

"Because you do care." Natasha butted in. "Now answer his question Stark, why are you here? What was the deal?"

"The deal was; I come, alone, and you get released. It was pretty simple. Iron Man for the rest of the Avengers. Now I don't do that much shopping, but a four for one deal sounded pretty damn good." Tony answered.

Clint smirked at him. "And what did you expect them to do to you? Or did you not think that far ahead?"

"Actually I did." Stark started. "I just don't really feel like telling you at this particular moment in time."

"Clint showed him another smirk. "Of course you don't."

A harsh knock came at the door, closely followed by an equally harsh voice telling them, "We're coming in. back away from the door and keep your hands in the air." Light came flooding in as the four men entered the large room, each sporting a large machine gun. "All of you turn around and place your hands behind your back."

Before any of the Avengers had time to oblige, Tony spoke up. "No, the deal was that if I came they would be released- unharmed." He put extra emphasis on the last word as he caught one of the guards shoving Bruce out of the corner of his eye. The biggest guard looked pointedly at the guard to his left and they changed places, so the larger one was directly in front of Tony. "The deal's changed." He spat at him, as he raised his gun, and fired.